


Safe

by Silviartemis



Series: Scars on our future hearts [1]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Angst, Canon Era, Gen, How Do I Tag, Hurt Racetrack Higgins, Hurt/Comfort, Racetrack Higgins Needs a Hug, The Refuge, and he gets one, how do I title, ralbert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:14:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23965228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silviartemis/pseuds/Silviartemis
Summary: Albert found him seated on the sidewalk. Back to the wall, eyes to the ground.His small figure was shaking in the early spring breeze, fingers holding onto his knees so tightly they turned white.Albert called his name twice but he never seemed to hear it.So he sat besides him and waited.
Relationships: Albert DaSilva/Racetrack Higgins, Ralbert - Relationship
Series: Scars on our future hearts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1727803
Kudos: 24





	Safe

**Author's Note:**

> I'm new in town, so let me know if you like this! I may or may not keep it up! Love 💙  
> (if you feel like leaving a comment please do! I need the serotonin)

Albert found him seated on the sidewalk. Back to the wall, eyes to the ground.  
His small figure was shaking in the early spring breeze, fingers holding onto his knees so tightly they turned white.

Albert called his name twice but he never seemed to hear it.

So he sat besides him and waited.

After a while, Race moved.  
His eyes never left the tips of his boots, but slowly, so slowly you’d only see it if you were paying attention, he let his weight shift slightly towards the other boy. He didn’t get close enough to touch, didn’t let his tightly coiled muscles relax. He almost held his breath, almost closed his eyes, as if he was waiting for the world to slap him in the face, for the sharp pain of rejection to remind him nothing could ever be as it was.

Instead he got soft pressure on his side, an arm on his back, fingers in his hair. He got to burrow his nose in the crook of a shoulder, to bury his shaking hands in the rough fabric of a shirt.  
Enveloped in his friend’s embrace, Race tentatively let himself feel again. The slow stroking of a thumb behind his ear. The warmth of a breath on the top of his head. The rhythmic pounding of a heart.

Albert. He was with Albert and Albert would never let anything bad happen to him. He’d bring him home, and he’d be safe.

Race finally let a sob escape his lips, and after that another, and another. The arms around him tightened slightly as he went lax against his friend’s chest. A soft string of reassurances filled his ears, telling him he was safe, he’d be okay.  
Lulled by Albert’s familiar voice, he let his exhaustion win and drifted off to sleep.

*

Race had grown thinner. That was the first thought that crossed Albert’s mind as he locked one arm under his friend’s armpits and hoisted him up on his back.

He wasn’t stupid, he knew very well what happened to kids in the Refuge, but he had hoped against all hopes that Race would come out of that hellhole fine and jumping around as usual. Or at least walking on his own two legs.  
He certainly wouldn’t have imagined the still, silent ghost of a kid he was currently carrying like the world’s most valuable backpack.  
It was horrible, to see him like this. So broken, so afraid. Whatever happened in there, it had carved a piece of his friend out and filled the void with fear.

Albert felt like screaming. Felt like punching a wall till his skin broke. Like he wanted to go back, kick the door of that damned prison in and fight everyone and anyone that dared cross his path, free all the other kids still trapped in that nightmare and finally break every bone of that monster that called himself the Refuge’s warden.

Instead, he forced his mind to go blank.  
He needed a list, a plan, some sort of order of actions. If he had a list, he knew what to do. If he knew exactly what to do, he could help. If he helped, he wouldn’t feel so damn powerless.

One. He needed to get Race to the Lodge, the older kids would know what to do to then.  
Two. He needed to stay with him. Jack was still locked up so Race would need him once he woke. The other kids would take good care of him, but no one knew him quite as well as Albert did.  
Three. He’d probably need to spend the night at the lodging house. That would need to be reported to his father, and would certainly earn him a beating.

Albert chose to discard the third point and focused on counting his steps instead.


End file.
